John and Fish's Pretty Good Ride

It is good, isn't it.

Great report!

I was right there just the day before. I was trying to meet up with Chanderjeet, but my trek wasn't as far reaching as yours. I don't think I achieved the same speeds, but we were on the same roads about a day apart.

You got it - this is some blessed riding country we live in. And it's just our back yard - easy to become complacent about.

I'm envious, but I'll come see ya after about 3,000 miles. Leaving tomorow to jump over the bump (phrase used by the Coloradan locals to describe the Rockies) highway 70 into Utah, then a couple fast laps around all those parks and stuff, then into Az to see where I may trailer em to this winter if I go stir crazy. Then out to Ca to see mom, then your place.

Ed

Great report Fish.

Riding with Fish

Everybody knows Fish, right? Rider, moderator, intelligent debater of all the salient political and economic issues, acid tongued and poison pen computer nerd and as I found out after he moved to Grass Valley, misanthropic family man.

- Wanna go for a ride Saturday?
- Nope, can’t.

And so on. I pretty much gave up.

What a marvelous surprise then, when we actually planned a ride…. although I use the word plan rather loosely. We met for breakfast a month ago, and the only plan we made was to be in Ft Bragg the first night.

Cool beans.

But, we still didn’t know each other very well and there are always these issues, so to speak, that motorcycling travel partners think about. You know, everything from riding pace to meal choices, picture taking to beer choices. I gotta say it worked out darn well. We both eat and drink, so that worked out. He’s fast and likes taking photo’s, I’m slow and don’t – so he took pic’s while I caught up. Anyway, stuff like that. Nary a cross word or sideways glance.

The 1st day was great, I was able to take Fish on some roads he hadn’t ridden before ( I think) Cranmore Road along the Sacramento River drops up and down the levee’s, through melon farms and cornfields. The road isn’t smooth by any means, so speeds were modest. Yep, I had to stop for gas more often, but for me it’s a non-issue, I’m old and I gotta pee anyway.




Through the Napa, Alexander and Anderson valley’s, where we found our one and only rainstorm filled with big drops and a bit of wind. Lasted 5 minutes. Perfect.

Cold and clear, we scooted up the coast on day 2. I have a habit (bad?) of sightseeing a bit when I ride and today the views and panorama’s we’re so incredible, they took ones breath away. One would ride, arms raised in some sort of supplication to the beauty of it all.

Use your imagination.



It amazes me sometimes what we will accept, what we’ll take as right or appropriate. Consider the breakfast buffet at the Holiday Inn in Fortuna. A warm brown liquid, labeled I might add, as “dark roast”, and these little sugary sweet rolls warmed to the same temperature as the coffee by heat lamps.

I was thankful. Go figure.

Hwy 36 was the next day’s ride and I got to see ‘ol Fishy in action. He knows and loves this road and it showed. Coastal farms, redwood groves, anxious dogs, crazy twisty’s and sweepers, cold air, Ono and Igo, Redding, a balcony, a steak and sleep. Not bad.





If you ride around Lassen, you see all these signs telling you about California’s “Volcanic Legacy” and it’s pretty obvious scooting between Shasta and Lassen, with mounds of lava, tumbled landscape and thin forests. Fish thought I was stupid for wanting to drive up through Lassen Park and he may have been right – black ice and all that. So, we pulled the old end-around, faked right and went left, cutting perfectly untouched through high snowy meadows, screaming through the turns along Spanish Creek, arriving safely in Quincy and the Ranchito Motel. Fish and the owner worked at the same company a million years ago, and they had to be exactly sure which building was which…

-I worked in building 150, the brown one.
- 150 is white with big windows
- That’s 125, I’m sure
- No, 125 was smaller

As you might imagine, I was enthralled by the sterling conversation, although it had a side effect of allowing me to down 3 vodka tonic’s trying to drown it out. Those lovely cocktails meant no riding to a restaurant, so pizza and wings were ordered and we ate and told more stories, listened and laughed and finally, slept.



It was a short ride home the next day, on roads I knew, so my riding may have been swifter. I may have learned something from a better rider too, in fact, I’m sure of it. The ride ended sooner than it needed too, which is a very good thing. When one doesn’t want a trip to end, when a trip itself goes by quickly with little sense of time or place, why... these are good signs. Our plans and goals were never stated, if even known, yet something was reached. It was a modest ride by any standards, and yet by the centrifugal forces felt we were somehow taken where all motorcyclists want to go.

Thanks Fish

Nice. Thanks John.

Great report - John & Fish.

John, you like to save those words, don't you? Make them do double duty and get the idea across with grace, style and impact.

Great ride report, freakin' hilarious.
It was nice to see AceRph and his son use this thread to touch base. I didn't know we could use the Ride Reports threads to connect with folks...pretty cool.



Hey Mom, if you're out there...can you make your lasagna on Saturday?

Thank you. If you have patience and plenty of lubrication, you can find others here.

Damn fine report guys and way to tie up the loose ends John.

The group I generally ride with deals with the same problems, but it is usually me that takes the photos and unless I have a burr under my saddle I am also the slowest rider.

We adapt and it sounds as if y'all did.

Again, really good stuff guys!

Thanks for the effort of taking us along.

John made it sound like we weren't very much alike and had to compromise to get along. That's pretty far from the truth. We've gotten along (as have our families) for the past three years. In fact, John was instrumental in my decision to move to the Gold Country. We came up on a fact-finding mission in the winter of 2004 and John sent us to several places along CA20 where the kids could play in the snow. It was awesome. We also had long email conversations about the various microclimates and communities that as a group, make up the Gold Country. I chose the south county...drier, warmer, while John lives in the north county with more trees and snow. Yet we both live in the area known as GV.

John did the walk-thru just before we closed on our property, since I couldn't get out of a meeting in Silicon Valley. Our boys IM and email eachother frequently and my kids refer to John's wife as "Antler", for reasons you'll just never know.

We had just never ridden together aside from a quick trip to a hippie breakfast join in town to "plan" the trip. He brought a map and I think we might have looked at it for 12 seconds between the first cuppa joe and the last bites of the lobster omelets. John said "let's just plan to be in Ft. Bragg by the end of the first day and we'll go from there." Fine idea, mate.

Too, we're both fat white guys on beemers.

John is anal retentive and I'm sure it was a stretch for him to relax to the level of my riding style, which is essentially pack the bike prepared for anything (except camping, that's obviously a much bigger deal), and just stop when you're tired at the end of the day for beer, food, and shelter...pretty much in that order. John would like to have an itinerary of where we're planning to sleep every night and the route we'd take to get there. For every day of the trip. Homie don't play dat. It's far more fun and interesting to not know where I'm going to go everyday. I like to just pick a road that I want to ride and see where it takes me.

I spent 17 years at a computer company in various jobs that required massive planning efforts...efforts that drove the improvement of project management software packages. I was an engineer for about 1/3 of the time (component, process, industrial, manufacturing, and quality), and a manager for the rest (project, program, and line). I'm sick and fucking tired of planning.

So we ride.

I don't know how I missed this the first time around, but anyway...it IS funny that your tastes, preferences, goals, sense of time and space, dietary needs/wants, and motivations change when you throw a leg over a 100hp+ motorcycle on a multi-day ride. I used to do road trips with the kids in the SUV and stay at places like that when they were little. Now with Max at 14 and Nicole at 9, we'd need two rooms and we'd still all be miserable. The kids know (at least max does) what might be left on the phone, sinks, toilets, doorknobs, and bedspreads. FW and I certainly do. Which is why we bought the F250 and 5th wheel trailer a coupla years ago. We take our home with us and everybody is very very happy...all the time. Even FW. No, it's NOT fun dumping the black tank, but it beats sitting on the dried spooge of a hundred other guys/gals in a fucking motel room. Sorry, I digress...

Yes, we're different when we're riding. It's a soft horizontal surface, there's a toilet nearby, hvac and prepared food not far away (usually). Fuck it, let's eat!
:dg

maybe one day someone will invent "Hotel Housekeeping" so we dont' have to sit on dirty toilets and beds...

I'd be happy if they just routinely washed the bedspreads and sprayed all the physical interfaces (doorknobs, toilet and sink handles, etc) with lysol everyday.

We've always traveled with a can of Lysol or some such disinfectant in our kit. Can't be too careful when it comes to kids......

Hey Feeesh, I was the cheap-ass on the KLR that waved to you at the Combie/49 light on Thursday morning. The license plate kinda gave you away.

here too...usually the wipes.

no shit. i was wondering if that was you. it was about 39F and raining. i noticed you were nicely geared-up. well done.

ah...the plate. dead giveaway, huh? yeah, i used to have an adv sticker on it but i got tired of getting scared when people honked at me.
I still have a small black reflective motoman on the back window.

I was gonna give you the salute, but you had a look on your face that made me stop. You looked trapped.

I'm too old to not be nicely geared up. I work outside all day, so being warm on the ride home is paramount. Being visible in shitty weather is nice, too.
We'll do the BBQ thing soon....................

Hi Ian! How's things?